Red Hat Enterprise Linux commonly but not officially abbreviated as RHEL is a Linux distribution developed from commercial point of view. Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides their source code for free but keep check on free re-distribution of their officially supported version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. All the third party derivatives and community supported distributions be it CentOS, Oracle Linux and Scientific Linux build and redistribute their distribution by removing non-free components and Trade mark of Red Hat.

Red Hat releases its distribution under various editions viz., Server, Desktop, Academic, Entry-level server (ES), Advanced Server (AS), Work Station (WS), etc. Since the product is commercial-centric it is free as in speech but not free as in beer.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, codename “Maipo” was released on June 10, 2014. It is based on Fedora core 19, upstream Linux Kernel 3.10, Gnome 3.8 and Systemd 108. The life cycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux is 10 years.

The first point update of latest stable release was released on march 06, 2015. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 has enhanced interoperability, improved development and deployment tools as well as security and performance of next level, stability, Red Hat Support, functionality improvement for Active directory environment and access to Microsoft windows file and print server adds to the list.

Features of RHEL 7.1

The world’s leading enterprise operating system gets several improvement and enhancement. Here is the list of most important improvements that is useful for industry use case:

Available for architectures x86_64 AMD, x86_64 Intel, IBM Power 7, Power 8 and System z. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 installation is supported only on x86_64 box though it can run on x86 processor as virtual machines.

Turbostat tool which is a part of kernel is updated to support new processors.

Installer Anaconda has been updated to improve installation.

Kdump which is used for kernel crash dumping is now configurable from the installation screen. Previously it could be configured on first boot and not before that. Also kdump will have large memory upto 6TB in Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

Manual Partitioning has been improved with a little change in the location of controls.

Network bridge is now configurable from the Network and Hostname interface.

Next Level security implementation by use of AD sudo provider along with LDAP provider.

Download RHEL 7.1 DVD ISO Images

Red Hat Enterprise Linux being a commercial distribution is not free to download and use. You have to pay for the subscription. Different editions have different subscription charge. If you have an active subscription you may login to the official website and download your distribution from there.

7. Set Date and Time, as per you Geographical Location and click Done.

Fig.06: Date and Time Selection

8. Select Additional language to be installed and click Done.

Fig.07: Install Additional Language

9. Time to modify (not necessary) installation source. Add additional repositories here, and other repositories over http. If you are not sure about these better stick to ‘Auto-detected installation Media‘ and Click Done.

Fig.08: Select Installation Source

10. Software Selection Interface. In production you should always select ‘Minimal Install‘ which installs your system with basic installation. This way you may choose which software to install and nothing extra thus higher level of customization.

Here in the example, I choose to install with GUI because I don’t wanted to give my time on GUI installation later moreover I am not going to use this installation in production. It is just a test drive. To proceed Click Done.

Fig.09: Software Selection

11. choose the device to install the OS. You have the option to encrypt your data from this interface. Also option to automatic configure partitioning as well as manual partitioning.

Automatic partitioning will do everything for you, but it won’t give you that level of customization as manual partitioning would. I chose “I will Configure Partitioning” aka Manual Partitioning. Select device and click done.

Fig.10: Manual Partitioning

12. You may add multiple partitioning, RAID and SAN Devices. If not required, you may click done.

Fig.11: Installation Destination

13. Time to partition disk manually.

Fig.12: Disk Partitioning

14. Add a new mount point (/boot) by clicking on + symbol. Input desired capacity and click to Add mount point.

Fig.13: Create Boot Partition

15. Next is the /boot partition settings window. Change file system from xfs to ext4.

Conclusion

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.1 presents several features that work out-of-the-box. The next level of security implementation, fine configuration, stability, reliability and performance improvement along with reliable Red Hat Support. Developers, Administrators and System architects is able to manage their resource more efficiently in innovative way.

Hello,
I am using ‘RHEL-7.1x86_64’ iso to install on windows 7 (AMD PRO A10), using VMware workstation pro 12.
I followed all the steps and installation got successful, but after ‘Subscription Management’ window, it shows a error as ‘Oh no! something has gone wrong, System cant recover’

Can you guide what is going wrong here? Is it compatible to use rhel on my windows(amd) with vmware workstation 12?

Have problem installing CentOS 7.1 from DVD.
Won’t accept my root password despite I follow the requirements and recommendation for creating a strong password. I am stuck in the mud here. Have tried different variants but no one will work. How to go on?
Thanks in foreward. OE.